week 3 - the chase for the chinese girl in new town

As told to me by my friend:

"

Landed in a new town.

Was a Saturday morning. Spoke to family. Made some calls to friends. Then stepped out for a stroll around the town.

I was at Tram station. A Chinese girl was sitting on the opposite side. She was listening to songs on her phone.

Few minutes later 2 boys walked to the station on to the side where girl was sitting.

I was busy reading on my phone.

Then there was a scream. The 2 boys and the girl were running away. Didn’t realize what had happened.

My eyes kept following them.

The girl ran till the corner of the road and gave up.

I then realized, something was stolen.

Asked the fellow passengers at the station. A middle-aged couple replied, her phone in French accent.

It was already a minute passed by. I then walked to the corner of the road. Tried conversing to the girl. She was crying and didn’t speak to me.

Then a guy from the shop next door walked to us and asked me. I told him the girls phone was stolen.

In all these conversation, it was 5 mins and we decided to go behind the thieves.

The local French guy asked his friend to cover from the east side.

He and myself, started from west. Ran around for 15 mins, looking every street, corners, parking place to see if they were hiding.

Then, Suddenly there were people talking in a passage. We stepped back and got into the passage. The 2 boys started walking out from  the passage. This looked like a small hideout.

The next part of conversation was in french. So don’t have the details.

French guy asked the boys for phone. One of the boy showed his phone and tried to walk away.

I stood in the path of the other guy, indicating to the French guy, these are the boys who stole the phone.

Again there was a "no" from the boys, and they were trying to sneak away.

We stopped them, and the boys gave it up. The shorter one of the two, took the phone and handed it to the french guy.

I stood back. But the french guy asked few more things, and the boys started running down the street.

I was wondering what next. The french guy asked me to follow, and we continued to chase. I was not sure what conversed, why are we still chasing. Should I trust this french guy.

The guy made signs from his hands indicating, "Not to speak, keep looking out for the boys" we kept slowly following the boys.

The boys were turning at every corner, to get out of our sight.

We lost them in one of the turns. A guy standing in a balcony smoking his noon cigarette pointed us in east direction.

We followed and continued running around. After 10 more mins of  we had totally lost them.

Now I wanted to get back to the station and return the phone.

The french guy was on phone constantly speaking to someone, and kept looking out for the boys.

Finally, he said, lets go towards the victim.

I asked me what happened, he said, he was talking to police, and trying to provide hints real time.

We walked back to station, took another 10 mins. His eyes were still looking for every possible hide out place.

At the station, I started searching for the girl, but looks like she had left.

A police car had come waiting for us at the station.

The police took the details, description of the boys.

The french guy handed over the phone to the police.

I asked, if we can try and dial the recent nos. But the phone was locked. It was a chinese model of iPhone. The pattern/key pad was in chinese.

Police left from there saying they will go to the station, to see, if the girl has come to register a complaint.

I said bye to the local guy. He in turn thanked me for coming along."

Hopefully the phone would be in the Girls hand, as I write this.